An aneurysm is a localized, blood-filled dilation or bulge of a blood vessel caused by disease or weakening of the vessel wall. Aneurysms can occur anywhere where there are blood vessels, although they are most common in arteries. Aneurysms most commonly occur in arteries at the base of the brain, in the circle of Willis and in the aorta. Rupture and blood clotting are the risks involved with aneurysms. Particularly, if the patient has elevated blood pressure, this bulge in the blood vessel can burst and lead to hemorrhage and possibly death at any time. The risk of death is high except for rupture in the extremities. The larger an aneurysm becomes, the more likely it is to burst.
X-ray C-arms are routinely used in medicine to acquire three-dimensional (3D) digital images for diagnostic assessment, and for guidance of interventional therapeutic procedures such as stent placement or coiling of aneurysms. Aneurysm analysis performed in 3D image space is often affected by the limitations of the aneurysm segmentation technique. In complicated aneurysm cases, the detection of aneurysm is not 100% accurate. This causes incomplete aneurysm detection, or aneurysm overflow (leak) outside the region of interest, which further results in inaccurate measurements.
FIG. 1 shows examples of aneurysm segmentation leak generated by a traditional segmentation technique. The gray portions 102a-h in the images represent the aneurysm detected by the segmentation technique. As shown, the aneurysm 102a-h has been detected incorrectly as leaking (or overflowing) to adjacent vessels outside the region of interest.